The Everything Player
by Apple-Cola
Summary: "He pretended to not realize what a great musician he was. He even came out of the audition room frowning and saying that he messed up on the audition piece." Marluxia is jealous of and annoyed by Demyx in band class. T for a few no-no words.
1. Chapter 1

_Pre-Story-Note: Hey you! You. All you normal band kinds. You know what it feels like. There's always that one person who can do it all. You know who I'm talking about! That one person who's so amazing that you just want to whack them. They get all the awards and they take it for granted, because they're used to being awesome._

_You know how you feel about those sorts of everything players._

_I feel that way too._

._. .-. ._. .-. ._. The Everything Player ._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

I chewed loudly and intimidatingly, while staring at the back of his stupid mulleted head intimidatingly. I just didn't understand it.

How could this happen again? I could never escape from the likes of him.

I was minding my own business in the music room of my school, a good and honest Junior, just trying to be the best wind player I could be! AKA: the best wind player in the band.

And then this freshman SHRIMP just walked in all hunky-dory and RUINED MY LIFE.

Well, he didn't walk into my life and ruin it right now.

He walked into my life this summer and ruined it last week.

And he also walked into the band room about five minutes prior to the beginning of this story and sat down in front of my group of friends, all on his own.

But everyone in band loves him, even if he is a weirdo, so he's never alone for long.

"Demyx!" Axel said with a grin in his voice. How, Axel? How could you call the attention of my tormentor?

Demyx turned to face my group: Axel, Larxene, and I. He smiled good-naturedly and pretended that he didn't steal my rightful position in this band.

Oh, cruel fate.

"Hi Axel! Hey Larxene! Hello, Marly!" He greeted us each individually. My eye twitched at the nickname.

Larxene laughed, "Why does Marluxia get the nicknames?"

Demyx's eyes lit up with excitement, "Because we're gonna be in the same section now, right, Mar-Mar?"

I glared at him. He frowned, "I'm sorry you didn't get first chair, Marly. You're still a really awesome flute-player, though! I really look up to you!"

He was doing this on purpose. He was rubbing salt in the wound. Salt dissolved in alcohol. Mixed with gravel.

He couldn't be honest right now! He must be mocking me. He was a great liar, then, considering his wide, innocent eyes.

What did he do to anger me so, you ask?

He stole my chair. The one I had been working toward since _my_ freshman year.

"You'll get it next year!" He comforted again, seeing my displeasure.

"What makes you so sure you won't get it again next year." I asked without actually putting question into it.

"Well, I'm gonna try out for french horn next year, of course!"

I facepalmed. Axel and Larxene cackled.

That's right, Demyx was one of _those._

He was one of those kids who could just play everything. He won every award, and he got first chair every time.

I know that now, but at first, I didn't expect it at all from him! He came out of nowhere.

During summer band camp, Demyx came into the game quite late. He had missed the first three days of band camp, and he had never even been in a marching band before.

Luckily for him, though, our composer was looking for a guitarist for the field show. So Demyx happily accepted this role and was placed in pit (front ensemble, for you non-band-nerds. They don't march. They play instruments that can't be moved in a show).

We (the vet, non-pit members, that is) all assumed he was going to be like the guitarists this marching band usually has: lazy, untalented, and filler-rific.

Then, one fine, boiling-hot summer afternoon, the pit came out of their cave (they hog the air-conditioned band room) to run chunks of the show with us.

Demyx was amazing.

Seriously.

And that was just the first full-band practice block. We had only seen the beginning of the show.

Later, it turned out that the kid had a feature in the pit break toward the middle of the second movement. Once we learned _that _part as a band, everyone loved him.

And then the kid came to school the first week, and he auditioned on _trumpet_ for Jazz band, just because his friend Hayner wanted to play the guitar this year.

Everyone told him to play guitar, because he was way better than Hayner, and because no one knew if he could even play trumpet.

He just said, "No, it's okay! Hayner really wants it this year, and I wanna help his chances, even if by so little!"

He pretended to not realize what a great musician he was.

He even came out of the audition room _frowning_ and saying that he messed up on the audition piece.

The next day, the name "Demyx" was first on the trumpet chair order for jazz band.

He acted like he was genuinely surprised. All of the upperclassmen trumpets that he had beat out of the seats they had expected to get were even more surprised.

I played saxophone in Jazz band, and I saw him in action at rehearsals. He played the trumpet sweet and clear, like a real pro. He was a bit nervous on adding his own twists to solos, but once the upperclassmen showed him their originality, he was soon able to put a lot of personality into the music.

Then marching band season was over. It was time for wind ensemble auditions.

No one saw him practicing any instruments before auditions, and whenever someone urged him to play trumpet again, he just shook his head and said he didn't want to play trumpet again.

Everybody took this to mean that he wasn't going to try out for wind ensemble.

That made it even worse of a shock when I checked the list of names and saw that, not only was I second chair, but I was second chair to the rocker with a mullet.

Who could apparently play flute.

I had been so _sure, _since all of the talented flute-players and "modest" everything-players that were in the band before had graduated! I thought I had escaped from the prison of mediocrity and risen above to be the best!

But this kid.

_This. Kid._

He ruined it.

And here I was, eating lunch with him in the band room as he attempted comfort me by telling me that he was fluent with other instruments too.

What was my life coming to?

_"_ARGH." I stated, standing up.

I then pulled Axel's chair out from under him and threw it across the room for no reason.

It hit the drum lockers noisily and came to rest harmlessly next to the marimbas.

The band director didn't even look up from his papers.

The only person outside of our little group who noticed was the pit section leader, Aqua, who gave me a warning glance. She thought I would hit the mallet instruments. I glared at her. She rolled her eyes.

"What. The hell." Axel looked up at me from his new position on the ground in offended shock. Larxene was cackling again.

Demyx just looked very amused and a bit lost.

"Oh, Marly! That's not very nice. What did Axel ever do to you!" the boy chastised.

I made a blank face at him and turned to walk out of the band room.

"Marluuxiaa!" I heard Demyx call, "You forgot your lunch!"

...Really.

I was ready to rip my hair out.

"DAMMIT."

I stalked back into the music room and snatched it, then stomped back out.

"You're welcome, Marly!"

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

_Notes: I love music class, and sometimes the crazy happenings when I hang out in there beg to be rationalized with fanfiction._

_I know that seems incredibly backward, but today I mentally sought out a reason that someone, anyone, from Kingdom Hearts would throw furniture if they were in band class._

_Of course, my guy friends don't actually need reasons to rip furniture out from beneath one another and chuck it around._

_And that's why I need fanfiction to rationalize it._

_Some things I say may be band slang and I don't realize that non-band-people won't understand it, so just shoot me a question if you don't understand something._

_Or maybe it's even regional slang or band slang that just my school uses because we're cool and legendary and can have our own slang like that. Lol._

_And I don't mean to insult any sections or people. I'm trying to go with Marly the Ambitious Flute Player's opinions. So no offense to any pit guitarists, pit members who practice indoors, people who like Hayner, or people who are good at picking up instruments fast._

_You're all awesome to me, at least! :)_

_Edit: I originally intended this to be a oneshot, but should I continue it? I feel like I could do a bit with this. There'd probably be a bit of side-pairings, but no main pairing, lol. Not not not romance. I'm too awkward._

_But you can take any friendships and bromances however you like, lol._

_So... should I?_


	2. Chapter 2

._. .-. ._. .-. ._. The Everything Player: Chapter 2 ._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Demyx looked at Marluxia out of the corner of his eye nervously as everyone took their seats.

It was their first official day of wind ensemble for the year, and Marluxia already looked ready to kill.

_I hope he doesn't stay mad at me forever. This guy is scary, _Demyx thought.

Demyx looked at the flute in his hands as the band director did attendance and announcements.

It sure was weird moving from section to section like this. Everyone else seemed to be family with their respective sections. It seemed that instead of being family with all of his sections, Demyx was like family to none of the sections.

Demyx, without thinking, let out a sad sigh. Marluxia glared. Demyx shot back a scared smile.

The teacher was now roaming around the room handing out sheet music. He handed Demyx the flute parts.

Three first flute, five second flute.

Demyx handed the first flute parts to Marluxia (who didn't hesitate to continue glaring) and another male student that he didn't know the name of.

_Wow, breaking the flute stereotype here, uh?_

He handed the rest of the sheet music to the fourth chair flute player to hand down.

The band director was saying a short bit on the concept of the piece, and Demyx was only half-listening. He couldn't get past the fact that Marluxia was still shooting glares occasionally.

"Now, I'm going to play the recording and you follow along with your sheet music so you can get a sort of feel for the song."

Demyx looked down at the sheet music as the song began, and he was already itching to just get playing.

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Marluxia wanted to close his eyes and enjoy the music, but he knew he should follow along, reading the sheet music. He needed to do his absolute best, so that, even though he couldn't reach first chair until challenges, he could at least make the band director regret not choosing him!

Marluxia knew this was an awful train of thought, but he couldn't help but be vengeful! This Demyx kid thought he could waltz right in and steal Marluxia's rightful place with no push-back? Well, he thought wrong.

His eyes reached the double bar line as the music on the recording drew to a smooth, fermata-ed close.

"Are you guys ready to sightread this?" The teacher asked, walking back to the podium. The class gave a mumbled reply.

Marluxia smirked. Sightreading was one of his strong points! Demyx must've practiced a lot to get first chair on a new instrument!

_But he can't practice ahead now~! _ Marluxia looked over at Demyx, expecting to see a worried look or to see Demyx concentrating on his sheet music.

Instead, Demyx was looking up at the band director, with an eager light in his eyes.

_That little snot. _Marluxia narrowed his eyes competitively.

The band director raised his hands and counted off aloud, slower than the recording was, because the band was playing this for the first time, after all.

The flutes started right off the bat, and Marluxia concentrated on the sheet music as he played.

All of a sudden, classes didn't matter, outdoing the twerp next to him didn't matter, and all he could hear and see was the music.

He felt the speed of the air whislting through at the high notes, and the declining low notes deep in the back of his throat. He wanted to enjoy it, but he didn't dare lose focus or lose count.

He heard a great chord building to a crescendo from the low brass and saxophones, and there was, distantly registering in his mind, the pulse of the percussion steadily getting louder.

Rather than dramatically increasing the dynamics, though, the flutes' melody carried them up higher, and they pulled out on a high note.

The whole band dropped down, save for a few dynamically challenged sightreaders in the high brass and clarinets. Marluxia rolled his eyes, as he sat with his flute in a rest position.

There was a long rest for the flutes, and Marluxia carefully counted on the fingers of his right hand, and he could see the other flutes doing similar things, such as mouthing the counts, tapping them, or also counting on their fingers.

Marluxia peeked at Demyx, though, and saw him with his eyes closed, and slightly rocking to the beat.

Marluxia saw Demyx flinch a little at a mistake in the auxiliary percussion, and Marluxia let out a little laugh at the reaction, while still counting on his fingers. No one could hear his laugh over the powerful dynamics of the low brass booming behind him somewhere.

Demyx began lifting his flute to his lips right before the band director cued them back in, and Marluxia hurriedly did the same.

The midsection of the piece, through most of the top of the second page, was pretty simple and boring to play, but still interesting, as it was a trumpet feature.

The first trumpets squealed a bit at a high note, and it was obvious that the second and third trumpets were having trouble keeping to their own respective harmonies, but it was still impressive when the flutes picked up the main harmony and the trumpets came together with the melody for a powerful fanfare-esque moment.

Then the dynamics dropped down, and the brass and saxaphones held a low chord and the clarinets trilled as the flutes pulled a chromatic-filled run to the top.

Then the whole band finished out the two of the last measures together, with a snare shakily pulling it out unconfidently in the background.

Then there was a high, smooth fermata on the release, and the band director teasingly held it out too long to make sure the students were paying attention to his hands. Marluxia heard a few of the flutes to his left drop out early from not watching, and the rest ran out of breath after a few seconds longer.

Much to his chagrin, both he _and _Demyx held it until the Band Director was satisfied and cut off.

"Mr. Bernaa-aard!" a brunette freshman trumpet called from the back, and some of the class laughed.

_What was that kid's name again? Did it start with an S? Or an A..._

_Whatever._

Marluxia looked over at Demyx, who appeared lost in thought (_as if he could think_), until Demyx looked up at Marluxia and smiled,

"I like that song."

Marluxia thought over what to say for a moment, just looking at him, before facing forward again, "You would, twerp."

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Demyx walked through the halls to a catchy beat in his mind as he headed to the lunch lines.

In band, they had taken a few of the particularly difficult sections of the music over again, before the band director had given a few wrap-up reminders and they packed up.

Demyx reached the lunch line, where a gaggle of older girls, probably juniors or seniors, almost instantly cut in line to stand with the girl who was originally in front of him.

He managed to make eye contact with more than one of them, and he pouted a bit, glad for his young-looking face.

One of the girls standing further away from him audibly said "Aww! What a cute freshie!" to one of her friends. The girl who was originally standing in front of Demyx smiled sympathetically and motioned for him to go ahead of them.

His eyes lit up, "Really?" A few girls giggled and most of them nodded.

He gladly slipped past them, and the rest of the wait was relatively quick.

When he had his food, he walked back to the band room.

When he opened the door, he was unsure of where to sit, despite having been in band all year.

He sat with a different group pretty much every day.

His eyes caught sight of a senior, Xigbar, waving him over.

Demyx trotted over to the older student's group and sat down on the ground next to them.

"Hey, kiddo." Xigbar greeted.

"Hey, Xig!" Demyx grinned, "What's up?"

"Not much," the baritone player and drumline section leader shrugged.

"Hey, Lux! Hi Xaldin!" Demyx greeted the other two students, who seemed to be intently concentrating on a fast-paced game of cards, which involved slapping the ground and the cards, for some reason.

The two gaming students just grunted in reply.

"Luxord's going to win, you know!" Xigbar commented through a mouthful of school vending machine pickle.

Xaldin used one of his hands to flip Xigbar off, as he kept the other at ready for whatever it was they were supposed to do.

Demyx wrinkled his nose, "How can you eat that?"

Xigbar swallowed and grinned, "How could I _not _eat this?" Then Xigbar's grin faltered, "Dude, what's up with Marluxia?"

Demyx glanced over, to catch Marluxia staring- no, _glaring_- in his direction. Instead of turning away, Marluxia just narrowed his eyes further.

Demyx quickly turned back to his lunch and shuddered, "He wants to skin me for taking his chair."

Xigbar raised his eyebrows, "_His _chair? Dem, it's _your _chair! You got it fair and square!"

Demyx shrugged, "Not in his mind."

Xigbar then turned to face Marluxia and glared back.

Usually a glare would not phase Marluxia, but Xigbar, even though he was just a big goof, had incredibly intimidating glares.

The reason for this was a childhood incident, which tore up his face and took out his eye, resulting in his self-proclaimed "awesome" scars and eyepatch.

Somehow, with only one gold-tinted eye, the amount of anger encompassed by the glare was doubled in this one eye to accommodate for the missing eye, and your brain automatically assumed that if he had another eye, its glare would be just intense, so, in a way, his glares were way more intimidating than any other glare out there.

Demyx glanced at Marluxia and saw that he turned back to his own homemade lunch.

"Thanks, Xigbar." Demyx laughed.

"No problem, kid!" Xigbar grinned.

"GOD. DAMNIT." Xaldin shoved his plastic knife straight through his tupperware lunch container (including its contents) and he harshly threw a five dollar bill at Luxord's face, before storming out of the band room through the instrument locker room door.

"Told you!" Xigbar called after him

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Marluxia paced fiercely, next to the picnic table where he and a couple of classmates hung out to study at the park.

"That little brat! He thinks he's all that and a bag of chips, doesn't he?" Marluxia fumed.

"Or at least a cheese stick," Axel commented unhelpfully from his seat atop the table.

"Please move, Axel," a blonde senior named Vexen said, annoyed, "If you sit any closer, your rear will be in my science home work."

"You know you like it." Axel wiggled his butt on the table.

Larxene was sitting on the other side of Axel on the bench, facing away from the table, toward Marluxia. She leaned over Axel's feet to examine Vexen's work.

"Are you actually trying on that shit? I heard from Xigbar that she gives you credit for doing it, whether or not you do it right."

"Yes, but unlike Xigbar, I intend to _also _pass the _test_." Vexen replied testily.

"And XIGBAR. That JERK is taking Demyx's side like some sort of cyclops bodyguard!" Marluxia ranted.

"Marluxia, you're distracting me." Zexion, a sophomore who hung out with Vexen often complained in a blunt, monotone voice. "And if Xigbar hears that you called him 'cyclops,' you're going to end up without an eye as well."

Marluxia flopped down next to Zexion, directly across from Vexen, and put his face on the table (dangerously close to Axel's rear end, I might add.)

"I just don't know what to dooo..."

Zexion closed his advanced literature textbook with a sigh and turned to Marluxia. "Who's this 'brat' you're going on about, again?"

Marluxia turned his head in his arms so that he could look sideways at Zexion. "Demyx..."

Zexion looked surprised, "I think that kid's in my PE period."

Marluxia sat up, "Really? Is he a noodle like he looks?"

Zexion thought for a moment, "Well, he has the best swimming time and is one of the top runners in my period, so I wouldn't say a _complete _noodle, but he's not exactly a shining star when we go to the weight room."

Marluxia grinned like the Cheshire Cat, "Could you sabotage him in some way?"

Zexion rolled his eyes, "No way. I'm not going to ruin my record because of some grudge _you're _harboring against some innocent frosh."

Marluxia huffed, "You have no problem messing with _your _enemies."

Zexion opened his book again, shaking his head, "That's because they're _my enemies, _genius. Not yours."

There was a long silence, then Marluxia looked to the other side of the table at a tall, quiet senior, "What say you, Lexaeus?"

Lexaeus looked at the school, then Marluxia, then Zexion, then out into the space in front of him, and said, "Hm."

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

_I can honestly say that I have, as a member of the female gender, shown compassion to younger guys in my school-line-cutting career, merely because they were cute little munchkins._

_So the behavior of the females that Demyx encountered is not invalid, and it does not mean they are attracted to him. It just mean his face and a pitbull puppy have the same perfect cuteness/manlieness ratio. XD_

_Should I write further? It's up to you to motivate me!_

_Honestly, if it weren't for that one reviewer last chapter, I wouldn't've even considered keeping this going._

_So, many awesome points to Danneee, for being, well... Awesome_


End file.
